Quote - Is Photoshop really hard to learn to use? One reason i am intereste din it is all the cool brushes and such. I dont know if PaintShop has brushes and such like PS does, does it?

PSP has brushes, and you can convert Photoshop brushes to PSP using the "ABR Viewer" which is free online.  It changes the Photoshop Brush to a .png file, then you need to change it to .pspimage file and then you can create a brush from it. It's a bit tedious having to do it one brush at a time, but it's possible.

As for Photoshop. The interface and some of the tools are vastly different than PSP.  I have Photoshop and am trying to learn how to use it and I'm totally lost with it even though I've been using PSP for almost 7 years. I find that I can't do much of anything in Photoshop because it's so different than using PSP. 

I asked in the Photoshop forum and was given this link:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptutorialsbasic/

There is also a link to a free 8 week online course, which I've enrolled in.  So far I've only done week 1 which is the interface, but it's helped.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/c/ec/1.htm

It's mainly about personal preference.  The reason I am trying to learn Photoshop is because I really love PSP v7.04, but I also like some things about PSP v8.1,  but the 2 versions can't share all files so I find myself with 2 versions of the same program and duplicate files for each version. Instead of "enhancing" and "adding" to a program, Corel chooses to change, delete and remove features/functions etc.  Which is why I find myself with 2 versions of the same program. PSP 7.04 can do things that v8.1 can't and vice versa. 

So I'm hoping that I can learn Photoshop and get back to having only one 2D graphic program on my hard drive. 

I'm having a hard time trying to learn Photoshop because I'm so used to PSP and I don't like change.  But if you haven't used a graphic program, you have nothing to compare it to so you will probably have an easier time adjusting than I am.

It's basically a matter of personal preference really.  It is good that you are researching the different programs before investing.

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